Special Announcements - FOA Webinar on testing, visits to Abu Dhabi and Qatar for meetings

40,000 CFOTs!
Optical LANs - Visit an Installation
More Information on Optical LANs
Google Fiber Starts to Connect Customers
Hazards of Counterfeit Cables
Is This The Right Way To Restore Fiber?
A Breakthrough in Bandwidth?
AT&T Plans $18b Network Build
World Projects
Private Transmission Line To Bring More Power to California Grid
How Is Fiber Manufactured? New Video
FOA Quickstart Guide to Testing

Current Issue of FOA NewsletterIt's now CFOT® and Fiber U®The FOA CFOT® (Certified Fiber Optic Technician) and Fiber U® (the FOA online self-study program) are now a registered trademark. With over 33,000 fiber optic techs holding CFOTs and the CFOT being recognized worldwide as the foremost certification in fiber optics, the FOA realized the value of the CFOT and Fiber U required trademark protection. Now it's official!Want to know more about fiber optics? Free Self-Study Program on "Fiber U®." Looking for specific information? Study for FOA certifications? Here's the largest technical reference on the web: The FOA Online Fiber Optic Reference Guide.

New FOA Reference Books

(Available Printed or eBooks)

Renew your FOA certification online - plus get a discount on the new FOA books and an extra month free. Details here.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS!

FOA will present a special webinar with Cabling Installation and Maintenance Magazine on November 29 on "5 Ways To Test Installed Fiber Optic Cabling."

This webcast seminar, produced by Cabling Installation & Maintenance and presented by FOA President Jim Hayes, takes a hands-on look at each of these five standard test methods. Attendees will see the physical setup of each method and gain a thorough understanding of each method’s application as well as measurement uncertainty.

40,000 FOA CFOTs!

In early October, 2012, FOA registered it's 40,000th certified member. Since its founding in 1995, the FOA has expanded to become the international source of education and certification in fiber optics.

We thought a more credible story would be a visit to a real-world installation, and we have one right here in San Diego, the new downtown central public library. We have mentioned this before in the FOA Newsletter (Sept, 2012). Vector Resources of San Diego is installing a passive optical local area network (LAN) architecture, using GPON (Gigabit PON) technology. (Read more.) For this project, Vector Resources is collaborating with Tellabs and TE Connectivity.
Just to understand the magnitude of this project, there are about 1,000 drops of a single-fiber SM cable that connects to a 4 port Gigabit Ethernet switch, serving 4 users, for about 4,000 users plus hundreds of wireless APs, spread out over 9 floors of the building.
Those of you familiar with traditional structured cabling standard architecture know what this means - massive ladder racks with piles of UTP cables running to the work area from telecom rooms full of switches close enough to meet the 100m limit of UTP cable and backbones of fiber optic cables.
Well the public library has little of that! Instead of 4 UTP cables, each work area has a single fiber SM cable pulled through conduit in the floor terminated in a TEC Lightcrimp APC connector. Telecom rooms are almost empty, existing mainly to house only splitters and patch panels for the optical LAN, but still needs to house other hardware for phone and audio-visual systems. The amount an optical LAN simplifies cabling compared to a traditional structured cabling system is astounding.

Let's take a quick photo tour:

This is the new library under construction.

This is a typical telecom room under construction. While it will serve hundreds of drops (and 4 times as many users), it does not need the massive racks and trays commonly needed in telecom rooms using UTP cable.

Looking up at some intial SM cables installed to drops. Penetrations from the floor above are visible at the top.

The entrance facility. Needless to say, the incoming cables are all fiber.

Every column in the building will have a wireless access point to ensure good WiFi coverage in addition to the Gigabit Ethernet cable drops.

Bob Schuman of Vector Resources shows where a single fiber SM cable will be pulled to connect a switch on modular furniture that will serve 4 users. These poke-throughs are placed on a grid to serve the modular furniture in the building. SM cables will be terminated in TE Connectivity Lightcrimp APC connectors.

Vector Resources has promised to give us another tour in February when the project is about finished so we can see the final installation.

Optical LANs -More Information

Over the last couple of years, we've written a lot about all-optical LANs, either based on FTTH passive optical network or point-to-point Ethernet architecture. The more we see of these types of networks, the more we appreciate their design and economy.
They have the advantage of millions of drops installed as part of FTTH systems around the world, which leads to economies of scale and experience with installation and operation that ensure performance and reliability.
Being based on singlemode fiber, of course, means these networks have no real limits on distance in premises or campus LANs, and in these short distances (compared to typical OSP links) virtually no bandwidth limitations.
New product designs like the ruggedized drop cables for FTTH and the prepolished/splice connectors which are now widely used make cable installation simple and well within the means of CFOTs.
For those concerned over security, and today that means everyone, the encryption of FTTH PON networks is a good selling point.
Add to all this the technical hurdles facing UTP copper and multimode fiber to keep up with network speeds, and it makes these optical LANs even more attractive.
Cost has been an advantage for larger networks (number of drops and physical size), but we do not know how big a network needs to be to take advantage of the optical LAN architecture. Perhaps someone who has done analyses can share that data with us.

Here are three sources of information on optical LANs - BTW, they need a name - let's start calling them OLANs!

Google Fiber Starts to Connect Customers

As it approaches the three-year anniversary of revealing its project in February 2010, Google Fiber announced Tuesday that it has begun to connect homes to its 1Gbit/s network in Kansas City, Kan. Google said it's aiming for a one-visit installation process, but at this juncture it consists of two parts. Google will first pull fiber and terminate it at the subscriber's home, then follow up with the in-home installation. Google Fiber posted this video so customers will know what to expect:"Read more (and watch the video) on LightReading.

Hazards Of Counterfeit Cable

You may have read the stories we have written about the counterfeit "Cat 5" cable made from copper-clad aluminum rather than pure copper. Recently we tried an unscientific burn test on the cable compared to a known good UL tested cable and posted a video on YouTube. You can see the results below.

Is This The Way To Fix An OSP Cable Problem?

Photo taken in Philadelphia in October while at a TIA Meeting. Near our hotel was an empty parking lot with 4 fiber optic cables crossing the entrance. The cables were being held up by a large portable stage stand and duct tape. We hope this was temporary.

A Breakthrough in Bandwidth?

Faster fiber or lasers? No, a way to use less bandwidth. Researchers have improved wireless bandwidth by an order of magnitude—not by adding base stations, tapping more spectrum, or cranking up transmitter wattage, but by using algebra to eliminate the network-clogging task of resending dropped packets of data. While designed for wireless, it should apply to any network. MIT Technology Review

AT&T Plans $18billion Network Build, Wants To End POTS?

AT&T says it is planning to spend $14 billion to expand and update its networks, both wireless and wireline networks. It plans to cover 300 million people with its LTE network by 2014 and expand its U-verse offerings. The company said that the investment will include $6 billion to upgrade wireline infrastructure, including fiber deployments to 1 million additional business customer locations. The company also filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission asking the agency to open up a dialogue about the transition from older telecommunications technology and run a beta trial on moving away from that older infrastructure. In a blog post worth reading, AT&T cited the goal of the FCC’s National Broadband Plan, saying it hopes “this proceeding will provide some additional stepping stones on the path towards achieving that plan.”
If we understand this correctly, AT&T is petitioning the FCC to be allowed to quit supporting POTS - plain old telephone service - indicating the end of the non-digital phone system.

World Projects

Philippines: Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co (PLDT) group is constructing a fiber op- tic cable system linking Cebu, Bohol and Mindanao. The project will entail 450km of cable from Cebu to Cagayan de Oro City. A little over 300km will be inland, with an- other 150km of submarine links between Cebu and Bohol and between Bohol and Misamis Oriental. The facility, initially equipped with 210 Gbps capacity, is due for completion in September 2013. The project will add a third leg to the two fiber optic highways already connecting Mindanao to the rest of the country via PLDT’s domestic fiber optic network.

Peru: Internexa, will deploy 100G optical coherent technology from Alcatel-Lucent to dramatically boost the speed and capacity of its data network to support the distribution of digital content from around the world into the region. Internexa has the largest terrestrial network in South America, providing connectivity to operators in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and soon, Central America. The company is migrating digital content currently located outside the continent to data centers in Colombia and Brazil through agreements with the main content delivery network (CDN). Alcatel-Lucent is supplying Internexa with its 100G optical coherent technology.

Private Transmission Line To Bring More Power to California Grid

A new private transmission line has been proposed to deliver 2,000MW of power generated by wind and solar energy into Los Angeles other areas in California. The power line project would be built for the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) and expected to be online by late 2016. After completion of the permitting process and the environmental review, construction of the transmission line could begin in January 2014. AV Clearview project consultant Thomas O’Connor was quoted on the website as saying that Kern County has permitted over 7,000MW of renewable energy projects, with about 3,900MW already online. “Despite receiving all necessary county approvals, many new generation projects will face challenges connecting to the existing transmission facilities, including Southern California Edison’s new Tehachapi renewable transmission line, which stretches from Tehachapi into Los Angeles County,” O’Connor said.

Comment: FOA has received phone calls from some of the alternative energy projects asking how to get communications to their facility. Running a large solar or wind facility requires lots on fiber on the site to monitor and control the generating equipment, but of course it also needs to communicate with the outside world to coordinate its power with grid needs. The logical solution is to include fiber, usually in the form of optical power ground wire (OPGW) in the transmission line design.

How Is Fiber Manufactured?

OFS invites you on a tour of their multimode fiber manufacturing facilities in this new 5-minute video. You will see their highly automated manufacturing operation in Sturbridge, Mass., including their patented MCVD preform fabrication process to fiber draw and final product testing. With a technological heritage dating back to AT&T and Bell Labs, OFS has been manufacturing high-quality multimode fiber since 1981. Watch the video here.

In our continuing quest to help people understand how to test fiber optic cable plants and communications systems, we've created a "QuickStart Guide to Fiber Optic Testing." It's a simple, step-by-step guide on how to test fiber optic cable plants, patchcords or single cables and optical power from transceivers. It's as straightforward as it can get - what equipment do you need, what are the procedures for testing, options in implementing the test, measurement errors and documenting the results.
It can't get much simpler. Send anybody you know who needs to know about fiber optic testing here to learn how it's done in a few minutes.

New FOA Lectures

We've added lectures on new topics, the characterization of optical fibers for CD, PMD and spectral attenuation, important issues for long haul systems and DWDM, POF and OLANs..

2 New "Hands-On Hints" Videos:

Lectures On Instructor Training
A new section of the FOA YouTube channel is all about teaching fiber optics and premises cabling. It's designed to help instructors working toward FOA CFOS/I instructor certification but is also useful to anyone teaching fiber or premises cabling.

2012: The Year of The OTDR

Most of the technical and testing questions we get here at FOA involve misunderstanding of OTDR testing. A number of FOA master instructors have suggested we focus on OTDR training, both in our schools and online, to minimize the problems, so we have declared 2012 "The Year of The OTDR." Look for special articles, a new "1pStandard" and other information that will make these instruments less enigmatic!

This Is What OTDRs Are Supposed To Find!In this particular case, documentation on the project was limited but some fibers were broken, so the different lengths of the fibers tested identified major damage to the cable.

Is this the future of OTDR testing?
Alcatel-Lucent Adds Integrated OTDR Capabilities To Transceivers
Alcatel-Lucent is testing a new concept that adds OTDR capability to transceivers for use in deployed systems. Initial applications are focused on PONs and will integrate with the Alcatel-Lucent network monitoring systems. Bell Labs developed the technology which will be licensed to transceiver manufacturers. From Lightwave

Three Good Practice Tools For OTDRs, All FreeYou may already know that the FOA has a free OTDR Simulator you can download from our website (go here for directions) that allows you to practice using an OTDR on your PC, seeing the effects of changing setup parameters and analyzing dozens of real world traces. But here are two more tools that can be good for practice.

AFS OTDR Online Demo

AFS has an online interactive demo of their new OTDR that allows you to see how an OTDR makes measurements. You use the yellow buttons in the center of the OTDR to set the markers to make measurements. Very well done. Go to http://www.afsi.us/otdr/otdr_mode.php for the demo.

This webcast seminar was presented by FOA President Jim Hayes. In the seminar, Hayes will explain what is involved in a cabling-installation project (fiber, copper and/or wireless), from concept to acceptance. He will describe the step-by-step procedures, referencing which responsibilities fall on the end user, which fall on the contractor, and the critical points of cooperation between the two.

FOLS Webinar

Testing for Data Centers

Presented by Michelle Collier, AFL
Today's high speed networks require more stringent performance than typical LANs. To be sure the networks will support today's networking applications it is important to properly clean, inspect and test optical fiber networks. This webinar will address which tests are required and recommended and how to perform them.

The economic impact of advanced broadband networks on a city and the entire region
THIS IS THE FIRST conference of its kind in this country - an event devoted entirely to the relationship between a community's economic vitality and the presence of advanced broadband networks. Nations around the world have recognized this powerful linkage and responded to it - as have a growing number of communities in the United States. Each event in this new conference series will be held in a city with an advanced broadband system. Each event will have an impressive array of speakers whose mission will be to help attendees evaluate the options and opportunities and develop the optimal, affordable solution for their communities. The first conference is in Danville, Virginia - the Comeback City that bounced back from devastation with a visionary broadband strategy that's creating jobs and attracting the businesses and industries of tomorrow.More info.

9- 12 December in Abu Dhabi
The inaugural Fibre Optics in Energy Conference 2012 taking place from 9- 12 December in Abu Dhabi will provide a platform for industry leaders to share knowledge, experiences and practical solutions on use of Fiber Optics in the energy businesses.

AFL to Host "Traveling" Advanced Splicing SeminarsAFL has launched advanced splicing seminars intended for engineers and professionals, as well as university students, engaged in fiber optic activities involving non-standard and specialty fusion splicing activities. Typical applications for these advanced splicing needs are often in the Medical, Oil and Gas, Fiber Lasers, Optical Manufacturing, and Aerospace markets. These seminars will cover a wide range of applications and solutions for difficult and challenging applications using advanced fusion splicing platforms.

Seminars will be held in around the US andCanada.

There is no charge for attending; however AFL will be conducting pre-registration in order to ensure availability of a proper facility depending upon the number of attendees.

Free Corning "See the Light" SeminarsCorning Cable Systems' See the Light team is coming to a city near you! Receive Free fiber optic training on a variety of topics including Termination Technology, Testing and Trouble Shooting, Fusion Splicing, and Preterminated Solutions. These interactive three-hour sessions provide students with a comprehensive overview of the latest technology. Fiber optic BICSI (CEC) credits apply (3). Here is the current information and schedule.

JDSU Testing Webinars
You are invited to join JDSU for a complimentary series of educational webinars. Each webinar, presented by a JDSU subject matter expert, lasts approximately one hour, including Q&A. Go here to see the seminars offered.IMPORTANT: use registration password: FONA1.

FOA Standards For Contractors, Designers, Installers and Users

FOA Certifications Recognized By US Department of Labor

All FOA Certifications have now been recognized by the US Department of Labor. The DoL reviews certifications and how they relate to job opportunities and training. The DoL Career OneStop website helps individuals explore career opportunities to make informed employment and education choices. The Web site features user-friendly occupation and industry information, salary data, career videos, education resources, self-assessment tools, career exploration assistance, and other resources that support talent development in today's fast-paced global marketplace.FOA Certifications Listed By US Department of Labor - Career OneStop

US Department of Labor Recognizes FOA In New "Occupational Outlook Handbook"

This website lists all sorts of interesting information, including what these workers do in their jobs, how they get trained and certified (where the FOA is referenced) and something everybody is interested in - sections on "Pay" and "Job Outlook" - see the red arrow above.
FOA LinkedIn Group On Fiber Optic Training
FOA has started a new LinkedIn group called "Fiber Optic Training" dedicated to discussions on fiber optic training. Anyone can join our new Linked In fiber optic training group. We're experimenting on teaching instructor-led online courses on LinkedIn - watch for announcements on the FOA LinkedIn group and Fiber Optic Training Group. Take a look and join the group.

Corporate Memberships

FOA is now offering corporate memberships to companies involved in fiber optics as manufacturers, contractors, installers, etc. Among other benefits, Corporate Membership gives companies access to special FOA materials for educating customers and employees.Read more.

FOA Standards:

FOA has joined the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to be able to keep up to date on more standards activities.

FOA now offers free standards for testing the installed fiber optic cable plant, patchcords and cable, optical power from transmitters or at receivers and OTDR testing. Look for the "1 PageStandard" web page and in the FOA Online Reference Guide.

There are two new free online self-study programs on Fiber U. Fiber Optic Network Design is for those interested in learning more about how ot design fiber optic networks or studying for the CFOS/D certification. FTTx is for those wanting to know more about fiber to the "x" - curb, home, wireless, etc. - or studying for the CFOS/H certification. Got to Fiber U for more information.

We are considering using these self-study courses as part of online instructor-led courses using Linked-In. We have a new LinkedIn group, "Fiber Optic Training" (see below) which will be used for this. Join now for these courses.

Reference Books for FOA Certifications are now available on Kindle and iPad/iPhone

We have created three new FOA books to be used in training for FOA certifications and as reference books for contractors, installers and end users of fiber optics. These books have full curriculum support, including free curriculum materials for teaching FOA certification courses. Because we are self-publishing these books using more modern "publish on demand" technology, they are easier to keep up to date, easier to buy and much, MUCH cheaper! All are now available in print and electronically in Kindle and Apple iBook versions. The basic fiber optic book is also available as a self-study program in an Apple APP for iPad/iPhone/iPod.
Details on the new book each of the new books are at the book pages linked to the photos above.

FOA iPad Apps
The FOA has just released its second APP for the iPad, a free "loss budget calculator," FOA LossCalc.

FOA LossCalcFOA LossCalc estimates the optical loss of a fiber optic link. This will save time for the installer of a fiber optic link needing to know whether test results are reasonable and/or make a "pass/fail" determination. It can also help the designer of a link to determine if communications equipment will operate over this link.
By choosing the type of link (singlemode or multimode) and specifying the length of the fiber and numbers of connections and splices, it will calculate the end to end loss of the link. The app has default specifications for singlemode and multimode links or the user may create custom setups with specifications appropriate for any application. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/foa-losscalc/id476262894?mt=8&ls=1

Self -Study in Fiber OpticsOur first app is a self-study version of the FOA Reference Guide to Fiber Optics. The FOA APP builds on the FOA basic fiber optic textbook to create an interactive learning environment that builds on the iBook electronic version of the book to add a guide to use for self-study and real-time testing that provides feedback on what you have learned and correct answers to questions answered incorrectly.
The FOA APP is priced at only $9.99, same as the iBook, so the self-study program is free. Download it from the Apple APP Store with your iPad or iTunes.http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/foa-guide/id434354283?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

NECA/FOA 301 Installation UpdatedStandards cover components and systems and how to test them, but rarely get into installation issues. The FOA NECA 301 standard which covers installation of optical fiber systems has been revised for the second time, adding considerable new materials. This standard is derived from FOA educational material put in standards form and approved by ANSI as an American National Standard. It's specifically written to be used in contracts to define "installation in a neat and workmanlike manner." The standard is available from NECA. FOA members can go here for instructions on how to download your free copy.

New FOA Lectures

We've added lectures on new topics, the characterization of optical fibers for CD, PMD and spectral attenuation, important issues for long haul systems and DWDM, POF and OLANs.

Lectures On Premises Cabling
The FOA has added more videos to our YouTube Channel, thefoainc. These are an introduction to premises cabling, covering applications, types of cabling, standards and installation practices for copper (UTP and coax), fiber and wireless. Like our lecture series on fiber optics, these provide a comprehensive introduction to the subject in short videos, typically 5-10 minutes in length, on each subject. Watch for more.

Lectures On Instructor Training
A new section of the FOA YouTube channel is all about teaching fiber optics and premises cabling. It's designed to help instructors working toward FOA CFOS/I instructor certification but is also useful to anyone teaching fiber or premises cabling.

What's New in the FOA Online Fiber Optic Reference GuideWe have been updating the Online Reference Guide to keep up with changes in the industry and adding lots of new pages of technical information.

FTTx and Design Pages UpdatedAs we developed the new Fiber U self-study courses, we updated the FTTx and Design pages and added a FTTx installation section.Testing FTTHBasic guidelines for testing FTTH PON networksLearn More About OTDRs - Download a Free OTDR Simulator
More and more installers are being asked for OTDR testing but using these instruments is not easy. They are hard to set up properly and complicated to interpret the traces. Using the autotest function can lead to disastrous results! The FOA has a good tutorial on OTDRs on our Online Reference Guide and we added a free download of an OTDR simulator to the OTDR section so you can learn how to use an OTDR on your PC.More New Info: Links to manufacturers and distributors of fiber optic lighting products.The FOA Online Fiber Optic Reference Guide has become very popular - perhaps the most popular technical website ever, typically with over 360,000 users downloading about 1.75 million pages in 2011! We continue updating materials regularly, keeping it as up to date as possible.Find What You Want Using "Google Custom SearchThere's so much information on the FOA Tech Topics and Online Fiber Optic Reference Guide that even a well-organized Table of Contents isn't enough and when the material is always changing, an index is impossible to maintain. So the FOA is using the latest technology in search, Google Custom Search, which will allow you to search justthe FOA Tech Topics and Online Fiber Optic Reference Guide for any topic you want to find more about. Try it!Go to The FOA Online Fiber Optic Reference Guide. School NewsQuote from one of our certified instructors: I want to thank you and your organization for all the resources you provide for the students and the opportunity to offer the certification to the students. The fact that you published the book yourself to get the cost down and the unlimited free resources on your website shows a commitment to the public that is second to none. I let it be known to the students that the FOA is the best in the industry at supplying knowledge and resources related to the communication industry. I look forward to passing on the information that you provide for the industry.

It's Now A Lot Easier To Find A FOA-Approved Training OrganizationMost phone calls we get regarding finding a FOA-Approved training organization want to know two things: what school is closest to me or what school offers the certifications I need. That can be difficult, since the FOA has almost 200 training organizations we have approved worldwide!
We've been looking at ways to make it easier, and we think we've got a good solution. In fact we have two solutions.
First we have added a sortable table of all the FOA-Approved schools.
You can also use our FOA Google Map Application to find FOA-Approved schools.

What Should A Fiber Optics or Cabling Tech Know and What Skills Do They Need?The FOA has been updating its lists of KSAs (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities) for fiber and cabling techs. The updated list is now on the website for your information and comments - as fiber and cabling KSAs evolve as new technologies develop.KSAs for fiber and cabling techs.Good Question! Tech Questions/Comments Worth Repeating

Tech Hint: Did You Know You Have A Fiber Optic Tester In Your Pocket?Yes! The camera in your cell phone is sensitive to infrared light - lots more than your eye - and can detect light in an optical fiber or from a transmitter. Chris Hillyer,CFOT/CFOS/I, Master Instructor, Northern California Sound & Communication JATC sent us some photos showing how this works. See below or the video now on YouTube. Update: You should check out your old cell phones before you recycle them. We've found older models use sensors which are better at infrared than the newer ones which take better pictures. This is a good use for your old cell phones hiding in the drawer!

Removing Obsolete (And Valuable) Copper Telephone Cables (11/12)Q: In our FTTH build-out we have changed a large number of customers from copper to fiber. There is a huge amount of copper underground lying free. (Inside ducts) The issue is that in the access network most are together with new fiber cables (no sub-ducts). In the primary routes there are large count copper, say 2000 pairs and above too. So pulling out wont be easy and need to be done by a specialized party. There is a large amount of money down below! I hope you can give me some guidance and refer me to the right company or the right person to get an idea.A: Yes at the current price of copper this is indeed a very profitable "mining" venture! A web search for "removing copper cables from underground ducts" gives lots of leads, but the company I remember talking to is "Cable-X" http://cable-x.net/what-is.htm which is based in the Netherlands. Would FTTO Work? (11/12)
Q: We have a project we are working on and I had a few questions: The project is a large indoor mall. The mall wants to add public WiFi. Would FTTO work for this application?A: This is an ideal application for FTTO. You would use singlemode fiber and would need to add power at the antenna locations for the wireless access point and a media converter or switch. One advantage is flexibility of placement of APs in a large facility with direct connections to just one equipment room. I would look at prefab cable assemblies too- you might be able to avoid field termination or splicing.
Mode Conditioning Patch Cables (11/12)
Q: Something new came up in a discussion with a network engineer. He told me about “mode conditioning patch cables”. What are they?A: They were originally used for Gigabit Ethernet at 1300 nm using laser sources. 1000Base-LX sources were lasers with singlemode pigtails. Multimode fibers of the era were notorious for having incomplete fusion of the glass in the center of the core which caused bandwidth problems. Mating a SM pigtail laser to one of these fibers caused big bandwidth problems since they launched right into the center dip. The immediate solution was to set up an offset launch to avoid the center of the fiber with LX sources. VCSELS had problems with these fibers too, even though they launched a much larger spot, so the laser-optimized 50/125 OM3 fibers were developed to not have the center dip and OM4 followed soon thereafter. 10GBASE-LX4 had the same problem, of course, only worse, with OM1/2 fibers and SM lasers. The patchcords are usually made by splicing SM to MM fibers with an offset of ~10 microns. I cannot say I know anyone who has actually used them! 1300 nm has no advantage with MM fiber as the bandwidth has been optimized for 850nm. And they are much more expensive than 850nm VCSELs. It is unlikely you need them with OM3/4 fiber and I would not recommend running 10G over OM1/2 without some field trials.

Restoration
Q: Do you have any data on Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) statistics available for fiber cable outages?
A: We break the MTTR into two stages - finding the break and fixing it.
Finding a break is often much simpler than you think - somebody sees it happen! Although I do know of an instance in Chicago where a cut was located by OTDR and when the crew drove to the site found a sign company pushing broken ends of the fiber cable back into the hole they were digging with a big auger to hide it!
The textbook response talks about using an OTDR to find the break, but that is probably a less likely solution for many dig-ups or accidents bringing down utility poles, more likely for rodent penetration or damage during directional boring in underground cables or, as one guy I know from Bonneville Power succinctly described it, "target practice" on aerial cables. Needles to say, you need to know how to use an OTDR and how to estimate the actual cable length as the OTDR measures fiber length not cable length. Here is info on OTDRs OTDR testing
Once you find it and are at the site with the proper tools and components, fixing it can be estimated as the usual splicing or termination time. We have articles on our website that discusses estimating installation time that covers restoration as well. Estimating Fiber Optic Installations and Estimates of Splicing Times for Various Cable Configurations
The FOA has created a guide to restoration for network users and contractors that you may find helpful. Feel free to share it and reprint it as needed. Planning For Restoration (PDF, 0.1 MB) We also cover it in our OSP Guide.

The Value Of Training For Network USERS (10/12)

The following is a series of questions and answers we exchanged recently with a network manager. It is a discussion of the value of training for those who are not full-time installers.
Subject: Training questions

Q: We are installing a fiber optic network for our system upgrade. I am wondering if it would be worthwhile to invest in the training and equipment required to troubleshoot the fiber optic system in the event of a failure? The concerns are that fiber optics is the most robust piece of the security system and failures would most likely be on the electronics side versus the fiber optic network. Also, the training, if used, would be used so little that the skill level and retention of the training would diminish to the point where it would not be useable.A: Our experiences confirm you are basically correct. Fiber is highly reliable and if properly installed and secured, should never need maintenance. We recommend secure systems be installed in conduit and all joints (splices or connectors) be inside locked boxes. This is normal procedure for public buildings like convention centers or airports and of course jails.

Q: Our understanding is the fiber optic failures, once the system is fully tested and commissioned, normally come from human error (cut cables) and not from the fiber optic network deteriorating and failing.A: Yes, that is generally quite true. We find more harm to fiber optic cabling systems comes from untrained personnel who try to clean or patch systems during moves/adds/changes. Construction crews can also do damage, which is why conduit is used in many buildings where crews may be working near the fiber. But having some basic training will ensure that your personnel can work with the fiber and electronics and troubleshoot problems - without causing harm.

Q: Is the skill level required to troubleshoot and maintain systems something that must be practiced on a regular basis to be effective. Our guess is that this is better left to a contractor specializing in fiber optics?A: Not really. In fact, having some personnel trained in basic fiber optics would make it easier to ensure proper handling and to troubleshoot electronic problems, since it is necessary to decide if it's electronics or cabling. The basic knowledge is straightforward, test equipment is simple and not expensive and if documentation shows what the cable plant test results were, it is easy to confirm it's OK.

Let's make that point again - the contract for installation should require the contractor provide complete documentation as to the layout of the cable plant and test results on each fiber. This is the most important thing for troubleshooting!

The FOA offers online training at Fiber U where you can study online to learn the material using our Online Reference Guide and YouTube videos. This may be enough to ensure that your people are at least informed if not skilled on the issues. If you want hands-on training, you can contact one of the FOA-Approved schools.

Multimode Fiber Types, Testing (9/12) Q: What is the difference between OM2, OM3 and OM4 fiber? What equipment is best suitable to test these kind of cables for errors?
A: The difference in OM2/OM3/OM4 fibers is the bandwidth capability of the fiber. For a 10G network, OM3/OM4 is recommended. OM2 is NOT recommended. We recommend that patchcords be the same fiber type. At 10G, the loss of the cable plant must be quite low, <2dB. Higher loss will cause receivers to have higher bit error rate (BER) which results in retransmission of packets and lower throughput.
Cables should be tested for loss and all connectors inspected and cleaned thoroughly. Dirt can cause reflections at connections that also cause high BER. So you need a insertion loss test set (light source and power meter) with microscope.Cleaning For High Power Systems (8/12) Q: Are there any documents that discuss how to clean fibers in high power DWDM/fiber amplifier systems?A: The problem with dirt on high power fiber optic systems has been known for ages. When fiber was first used for industrial cutting and laser surgery systems, the users found that dirt on the end of the fiber would practically explode, causing pits in the end of the fiber and eventually ruining it. Our first encounter with this was with industrial cutting systems which used metallic connectors. If you are not finding materials specific to high power systems, I'd bet it's because DWDM systems are the norm today and the CATV industry has dealt with high power for a decade. Telcos tell us they prefer to add wavelengths to current fibers rather than turn up new fibers because it's cheaper and easier. Thus all cleaning is intended for these systems.More on cleaning.

Gainers (8/12)Q: I understand that gainers can result from differences in core diameters and mode field diameters. My understanding is that a larger core diameter after a splice can create a gainer, due to increased scattering from the increased CSA. This would imply the same relationship for MFDs. Do you have a source that presents an explanation of the splice loss with differing MFDs?A: MM fiber works on "geometric optics" or "classical optics" while SM fiber works on "quantum mechanics!" When you reduce the size of the optics to a small multiple of the wavelength of the light, strange things start happening. In SM fiber, the light actually travels outside the geometric core - depressed cladding fibers have been used to help confine the light in the core- and it's a significant amount - and it's dependent on the wavelength of the light, so more light travels outside the "core" at 1550 than 1310.
One way of explaining why a fiber with larger MFD has more loss is this: consider the cross section of the fiber. If the light travels in a larger spot size, the cross section for scattering is larger so one should expect there would be more scattering in the fiber with a larger MFD.
Standard Power Levels For Multimode Fiber Systems (8/12)
Q: I have been trying to find a standard for the transmit power of multi-mode 1310nm optics. Is there such a standard? I see most fall within the -14 to -20 range, but I haven’t been able to find any definitive standard.A: There are standards but they apply to communications systems, not general fiber optics. See http://www.thefoa.org/tech/Linkspec.htm which shows the distance and loss ranges, but not the power. That is specified in each of the systems specs, but, for example, the Ethernet standards that include "L" in the name are long wavelength (1300nm) systems.
Multimode systems may have either LED or laser sources at 1310nm, so the power can vary from around 0dBm for 1310nm fabry-perot lasers (1000base-LX) to the range you mention (-14 to -20 dBm) for 1300 nm LEDs.
As a transmission wavelength for multimode, 1300nm is becoming less used. While the attenuation of multimode fiber is less at 1300nm, the fiber bandwidth is optimized for cheap 850 nm lasers (VCSELs) so the bandwidth is poor at 1300nm, leaving that wavelength to mostly long, slow systems. Furthermore, singlemode is now easier to use and the fiber much cheaper, so many if not most 1300nm links are singlemode, even in premises applications.

Replacing Connectors On OTDR Launch Cables (6/12)
Q: I just got some brand new launch and receive fiber cables for my OTDR and the connector on one end went bad for some reason. Can I replace it myself?A: The connector on your launch and receive cables need to be good, since bad ones will always show high loss when connected - even to good connectors. It is hard to do a field connection that is as good as the factory polished connections on the original cable. We recommend replacing the original connectors by fusion splicing a new pigtail on the cable if the connector is too badly damaged to repair, as the fusion splice will only be a few hundredths of a dB loss. (there are new unicam-like connectors that are susion- not mechancial spliced) You can also repolish the connector using diamond film which will polish the ceramic ferrule as well as the glass and remove enough material to remove scratches.
Another field trick is to reverse the cable and put the bad connector on the OTDR end. One of the FOA Master Instructors is the guy who wrote and taught the OTDR trainng for AT&T and he recommends using a short (3-5m) cable on the OTDR which is never removed to protect the OTDR connector then attache the launch cable to it, so even a bad connector on the cable will not harm the one on the OTDR.

More on Loss Budgets (4/12) Q: We manufacture cables for seismic industry which contains fiber optics. I have some questions after checking your loss budget document at http://www.thefoa.org/tech/lossbudg.htm.

a-If we want to establish the specs for max allowed attenuation for a cable containing 1 connector at each end (meaning the cable has 2 connectors); is it correct to calculate it this way: 2 x (0.75 db “TIA-568 max) + fiber loss along the length = our loss budget ?

b-What about the connectors of the optical power meter used for measuring (the ones we mate with each connector at end to transmit/receive the light)? Should I add their connector loss in the budget or I assume that the connector mate loss = max loss between one of both connectors (assuming the one at the cable has higher loss) for each end?

A: Let's start with question "b", testing. For reference, I'm going to use the new FOA standard for testing the cable plant: FOA Standard FOA-1

I am assuming the connectors on the cable are compatible with the meter, e.g. some version of the SC/ST/FC family with 2.5 mm ferrules and you have some compatible launch and receive cables that have been tested and are known good.

When you do a reference calibration in the one cable reference method, you attach the launch cable to the source (leave it attached for the duration of the testing) and the other end to the meter input to do the "0 dB" calibration. Most meters have an adapter that screws on top of the actual detector of the meter so the end of the fiber faces the detector. This interface is not without some loss, but it is consistent in the coupling of the power from the fiber to the detector of the meter, so it is a constant in the measurement.

Now we know how much power is exiting the fiber of the launch cable. To test a cable, we attach the cable we want to test to the launch cable. That connection has loss that depends on the quality of the connectors on each cable and the alignment precision of the mating adapter for the connectors.

If we attached the other end of the cable we are testing to the meter now, we would measure the loss of the connection to the launch cable and the loss due to the attenuation of the fiber in the cable. Since the connector mated to the meter has the same interface as the reference cable when we calibrated "0 dB" there is no loss added in this connection. We use this test for patchcords since it allows us to test each connector independently by reversing the cable and thus we can identify if we have one bad connector.

Completed cable assemblies are usually tested double ended, so on the opposite end from the launch, we attach a receive cable. The connection to the cable under test is added to the loss we measure and the connection to the meter is the same as for all other measurements so it is not included.

Thus the loss budget adds the connections on each end of the cable to the fiber loss since that is what is measured in this test.

Now we did this test with what we call a "1 cable reference" but there are options for 2 or three cable references. The standard linked above shows why you might use a 2 or 3 cable reference, it's a matter of the connectors on the cable and the meter and how they can be mated. What confuses people is what you are actually measuring with the 2 or 3 cable reference, since connections are included in the setting of the "0 dB" reference. We have a web page that explains the math: http://www.thefoa.org/tech/ref/testing/5ways/lossmath.html

In our loss budget calculations, we always include the loss of the connectors on each end since most tests are done with a 1 cable reference. If you use a two cable reference, the loss is reduced by the amount of loss in the connection(s) during the setting of the 0 dB reference, plus the measurement uncertainty is increased due to the uncertainty of the loss included in the reference. We address the measurement uncertainty here: http://www.thefoa.org/tech/ref/testing/5ways/fiveways.html

Now question "a": The answer is "yes" with a caveat. That is how you calculate the loss budget. Most connectors do not have 0.75 dB loss! That number has been used in TIA and ISO/IEC standards for many years. It was created by manufacturers as a worst case value for them to use so that all types of connectors would meet the standards. In fact, the more typical values for loss are ~0.3 dB for adhesive polish connectors, ~0.5-0.75 dB for prepolished/splice connectors and ~0.75 dB or more for multifiber connectors.
So while 0.75 dB is in the standard and widely used, you may want to use a lower value more representative of the manufacturing process.

Burying Fiber Ducts Below Frost Line (3/12)
Q: Should fiber ducts in northern regions be laid below frost line. Frost line in some areas of Canada is typically 8 feet. A: Normally telecommunication conduit should be place below frost line when ever possible. Cost is always a factor, in most cases frost line does not exceed 36" (1 meter aprox). Northern Canada is an exception. Depending on the strength of the conduit/cables to resist the crushing force of ice frozen in place around cables (see manufacturer). Ice has been know separate conduits from itself, frost has crush conduits/cables. The following designs have been used:
1) Use schedule 80 conduit/ GIP conduit (threaded pipe).
2) Design each conduit section so that it will drain down hill.
3) Keep water out off handholes/manholes. This can be very difficult & costly.
4) Ensure that cables can maintain frost crushing (see manufacturer).

Companies like Bell /AT&T have been placing conduit below or at 3' to 5' in Canada.
Companies like CATV have been placing conduit below or at 2' to 4' in Canada.
In the US most conduits are placed 24" to 60" for communication.
Each situation will need to be reviewed on a case by case bases.

Municipal Fiber Network Advice (2/12)
Q: I am charged with researching a municipal requirement to install fiber optic infrastructure in new development--this could either be for active development or dark fiber for future connection. Any pointers as to where to look? Have any communities done this well.... done this poorly.... have good examples of policy, legal code or standards?A: Municipal networks are becoming very common. The best example I know is Santa Monica, CA Citynet http://www.smgov.net/departments/isd/smcitynet.aspx and we've interviewed them on the project.
Santa Monica built a citywide network to combine connections to all the city offices, public safety offices, libraries, etc. plus added numerous CCTV surveillance cameras, smart traffic signals and muni WiFi. They installed lots of fiber - fiber is cheap but installation can be costly, so they built a big network with lots of dark fiber in the beginning. Then they leased fiber to the local CATV company, Verizon for FiOS fiber to the home, and connected up dozens of tech companies to high speed Internet access (Google, Yahoo and dozens of movie production houses are located in Santa Monica.)
The really good deal was it paid for itself. Federal money helped with the initial installation (DoTransportation, DoEducation, Homeland Security) and leased fiber keeps the income coming.
As a big college town already involved with "Gig U" (http://www.gig-u.org/), you should contact the people at the University to see what they have planned that may be able to be combined with your work.
I suspect that every town has its own issues with policy, codes and standards. We've discussed some of the issues with other towns and one thing that comes up regularly is that at a minimum, the town should own the conduits even if the fiber is private. If a private contractor digs up the streets to bury cables they should be required to install many conduits for whenever another company wants to pull cable, the conduit is ready and no digging will be necessary. We also suggest talking to the local telephone and CATV companies. In the past, many have fought muni fiber but now many cooperate with the city and lease fiber from them.

Help On Termination 2/12
Q: I'm working as an user and sometime I install connectors on fibers. Most of the time I work with ST connectors. Do you have a small guide how to prepare, and polish the fibers ? Is it possible to use ST single mode connector on Multimode fiber and viceversa ?A: We have several links that help you:

Singlemode connectors have tighter tolerances and a slightly smaller hole in the ferrule. Generally speaking, you can use SM connectors on MM fiber, except when the fiber diameter is on the high side of tolerance but you should never use MM connectors on SM fiber as the fit will be sloppy and the resulting core offset causes high loss.

Removing Unused Cables 2/12
Q: Can you point me in the direction of information on how to properly and safely remove 50 Micron Multi-mode Fibre Optic Cable from a data center? My company would like to remove their old FOC when they upgrade to 10g cable fibre and were considering cutting the LC connectors off the cables to make it easier to pull through the rats nest of cables under the floor. Is this a safe method? A: There is not standard way to remove cables, as it will depend on the installation. Cables in underfloor (or overhead) trays tend to be enmeshed in other cables unless they are in separate ducts. Under any circumstances, the best way to remove them is to cut off connectors, locate the cables and cut into lengths that are easily removed (just make sure you are cutting the right cables - a installer doing this with some cables in Newark, NJ once cut the wrong cable and put Wall St. out of business for a day!). Once they are cut into short lengths, it should be easy to remove them.
After removal, the cable can be recycled for the plastic - connectors are trash. Or if they are long enough, I may know some schools who would like them for their hands-on labs!

Higher Loss At Long Wavelengths? 1/12Q: I have a tech in the field that has installed a piece of single mode fiber approx. 650’ long. He is testing it with a source and meter. The fiber is passing the 1310 loss test but failing the 1550 test. What could be causing this? He has put new ends on the fiber already and is getting the same results.A: This sounds like a classic problem of cable stress. Singlemode fiber is much more sensitive to bending stress losses at 1550nm than 1310nm. If there is a stressed area in the cable installation, it's easy to get >3dB loss from a tight bend or kink, even near the connectors. There should be no difference with the connectors themselves. Telcos test links at 1625nm for stress testing.Followup: The tech went back to the job site with an OTDR and found there was a spike in the reading about 120’ from one end which is where there is a pull box up in the ceiling.

Fiber Cleaning
This is a topic we keep reminding everybody about, and here is why:From a contrator in the Middle East: Here some samples of the connectors for SM fiber already installed in the system we were testing. As you can see, the dirt is large compared to the size of the fiber (dark gray), and the core (not visible here) is only 9/125 of the overall diameter of the fiber! More on cleaning. See Product News below for links to vendors of fiber cleaning products.

See news about Fiber Optic Cleaning Videos on YouTube by ITW Chemtronics below.Measurement Uncertainty: Everyone testing fiber optics should understand that every measurement has some uncertainty - whether you are measuring loss, length, wavelength, power, etc. Knowing that uncertainty is very important to interpreting the measurement. It's worthwhile to read and understand the issue of measurement accuracy covered in this page of the FOA Online Fiber Optic Reference Guide.Worth Reading or Watching:

Recap: Recent FOA Newsletter Articles You Might Have Missed

Installing Fiber Optics
FOA President Jim Hayes is interviewed by Howard Baldwin for the CISCO BLOG on the issues of installing fiber optic cable and how to "think creatively." Read the blog.

FTTO: Fiber To The Office

At our seminars in the UAE with eSharp Consultancy, Cliff Walker presented information on his work designing "fiber to the office (FTTO) networks. The concept is based on using fiber to connect large switches in the equipment room to smaller switches with 4 ports at the outlet. You can read Cliff's paper on the airport system to see estimates of the cost savings using FTTO.Read Cliff Walkers paper on FTTO.

More On Fiber Use In Wind And Solar Power

Craig Bowden, FOA Master Instructor at FiberNexxt in NH, presented a program at the New England Fiberoptic Council recently on fiber in wind power. His presentation is available for downloading here. It's full of good illustrations and photos that tell the story.

Jonard FOD 2000 Fiber Optic Drop Cable Slitter

The FOD-2000 Fiber Optic Drop Cable Slitter is a patent pending tool that simplifies the slitting of drop cable jackets at the end of the cable or mid-span. For Flat Cables. Wathc their YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1H2zrW3k34

Making Sense of The G.657 Standard (OFS)

The G.657 standard was developed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to provide consistency in the evolving requirements for bend-insensitive single-mode fiber.This OFS paper sums up the standard and what it means. Read more.

What's ahead for multimode fiber communication systems?

By Gastón E. Tudury, Ph.D., and Al Brunsting, Ph.D., PanduitWith networks like Ethernet moving to 40 and 100 Gb/s, current multimode fiber has been forced to a parallel optics solution, not considered acceptable by some users like Google, due to the masses of fiber needed for data centers. Rather than go to a singlemode WDM solution, these two suggest we should look at redesigning MM fiber, cutting the NA for higher bandwidth and maybe tweaking the VCSELs too.Lightwave.

Want To Know Where Submarine Fiber Optic Cables Run?

Choosing the right connector: APC vs. UPC

An interesting article from ADC on the differences in APC and UPC connectors makes the choice easier.Read more.

Confused By Standards?

You are not the only one! As Bob Metcalfe, co-inventor of Ethernet, once said at a conference "The wonderful thing about standards is we have so many to choose from!" But the Siemon Company, an active participant in standards activities for decades, has tried to give some order to this chaos with a new website Standards Informant where they cover the TIA, ISO /IEC and IEEE standards that affect cabling and networks. If you need to keep up with standards, sign up for their email newsletter too.

Patchcords: You Get What You Pay For Says Siemon

Siemon is a global manufacturer of cabling products that has been a big contributor to international standards. Recently they tested patchcords procured from several sources and found out what you might expect - quality suppliers produced quality products but cheap suppliers supplied, well, you can read it here: http://www.siemon.com/go/fiberjumper

Benchmarking Fusion Splicing And Selecting Singlemode Fiber
We've been asked many times "How long does it take to splice a cable?" It's not a simple answer as it varies with the number of fibers in the cable and the work setup, including whether one or two techs are working at a job site. FOA Master Instructor Joe Botha of Triple Play in South Africa did his own analysis based on decades of experience both splicing cables and teaching others how to do it properly. This is one of the best analyses we have seen because Joe includes prep times as well as splicing times and differentiates between one tech and two techs working together. He adds some other tips on fusion splicing too. This should be mandatory reading for every tech and given to every student! Here is Joe's splicing analysis.

Joe also has an excellent writeup on how to choose singlemode fiber that helps understanding the different types of G.6xx fiber. Read it here.
And you will want to read Joe's report on splicing different types of SM fiber, including bend-insensitive (G.657) fiber. Read it here.

Videos on Firestopping: These free videos from UL and the International Firestop Council are good tutorials on firestopping. Go here to view the videos.

Micro-Trenching, Cable Removal (3/12)Nano-Trench offers products for micro (or I guess they call it nano-) trenching and their website is very informative. They also have Kabel-X, a method of extracting copper cables from old conduit. Both websites are informative and interesting. Watch this video on the cable removal process!

Free - Mike Holt's Explanation Of The US National Electrical Code (NEC) For Communications Cables

Mike Holt is the acknowledged expert of the US National Electrical Code (NEC). His books and seminars are highly praised for their ability to make a very complicated standard (that is in fact Code - law - in most areas of the US) easily understood. Part of the appeal is Mike's great drawings that make understanding so much easier. Mike makes Chapter 8 of his book available free. It covers communications cables, telephones, LANs, CATV and CCTV, for premises applications. Even if you live in a region or country where the NEC is not the law, you may find this interesting.Download Mike's Chapter Here.

Pearson Technologies Inc., a 32-year fiber optic training, technical and marketing consulting firm, announces availability of a free training and certification tool. This tool is a free set of crossword puzzles on the terms of fiber optic installation and products. This set assists those studying fiber optic installation or planning to take the Fiber Optic Association (FOA) Certified Fiber Optic Technician (CFOT) certification examination. The four puzzles are for: light and fiber terms, cable terms, connector and splice terms, optoelectronics and testing terms.

New Eric Pearson Books

A new book from Eric Pearson, Mastering Fiber Optic Network Design, has just been introduced (9/12).

Pearson Technologies Inc. announces the release of four new books,Mastering Fiber Optic Network Design, Professional Fiber Optic Installation, The Essentials For Success, Mastering Fiber Optic Connector Installation and Mastering The OTDR.
Based on 32 years of experience, laboratory testing, development, and training of more than 8000 installers, these books is suitable for training, installation, personnel certification, and reference. Eric's books are perhaps best described as fiber optic "cookbooks," full of detailed directions that reflect many years of tesing in his courses. They are valuable references for the fiber optic tech.

JDSU Application Note On "Qualifying FTTH Network before Equipment Installation"Another great paper from JDSU covering FTTH PON networks is available for downloading. It gives an overview of FTTH architecture, cleaning connectors then testing the cable plant with OTDRs and OLTSs. This paper will help you understand why OTDRs can be confusing on PONs!

Best Practices For Wireless Backhaul Network Upgrades
Joan Engebretson, Contributing Editor of Connected Planet has written a very good overview of how fiber is essential to the operation of cellular wireless systems. Everybody probably knows that fiber is used to connect towers into the telecom network - they call it backhaul - but her article also covers the new appliations to replace bulky, heavy, lossy coax up the tower to the antennas. http://connectedplanetonline.com/images/CP_ADC2_WhitePaper.pdf. Fiber Optic Safety Poster
We've had numerous requests to reprint our guidelines on safety when working with fiber optics, so we have created a "Safety Poster" for you to print and post in your classroom, worksite, etc. We suggest giving a copy to every student and installer.

Corning now offers videos on. Lots of interesting videos, some technical, some sales, but all good information.US Conec's videos on cleaning fibers - show's the results of proper cleaning.

Webinars of Interest

Broadcast Engineering Magazine - Fiber Optic TestingFOA President Jim Hayes presents an overview of fiber optic testing for all applications. Available on Demand. Sign up here.Multimode Fiber Trends from TIA's Fiber Optics LAN Section
Ryan Chappell, Draka Communications, looks at the evolution of multimode fiber, examines its current usage and shares predictionson its future Available on-demand at: http://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/7182/playOSP Magazine Webinars
OSP Magazine (OSP as in outside plant telco) is now offering a number of interesting webinars that cover fiber topics, including network design and specialized components. http://www.ospmag.com/events/web/Multimode Fiber Characterization Launch Condition Considerations - new ap note from JDSUJDSU Reference Guide to Fiber Optic Testing – Volume 2 Published
The second volume of the JDSU series on fiber optic testing has been published. Volume 1 focused on Basic Fiber testing and Volume 2 is geared toward fiber optic installers, project managers, telecom technicians and engineers who need to understand fiber networks. Volume 2 also covers Chromatic Dispersion, Polarization Mode Dispersion, Attenuation Profile and Fiber Link and Network Characterization. A 3rd volume, a glossary of fiber optic terms, is also available for download.
This is a "MUST HAVE" for all fiber optic techs. Download your free copies here.
We used this book as one of our references in creating a new page in the FOA Online Reference Guide on chromatic dispersion (CD) and polarization-mode dispersion (PMD).Careers in Fiber Optics: Brian Smith. A 1998 book on fiber optic jobs is a bit dated, but a free overview is on Google Books and worth a look at it online.

Dirt!As much as 70% of the problems associated with deploying fiber to the home result from something as simple as dirty connectors according to JDSU. Telephony Online.

Pulling Cable Through Water?
Read a Product Spotlight on Polywater® + Silicone™, Polywater's new generation underground lubricant. Continued reduction of friction when pulling through water is only one of the unique features of this lubricant. --http://www.polywater.com/NNNBSL.pdf

" Heard on the Street" is a monthly online newsletter from Frank Bisbee of Communications Planning Corporation that covers the telecommunications and cabling businesses. Each month includes news from manufacturers, trade associations and professional societies like the FOA. You can read the current issue and back issues online.JDSU has announced the See the Light webinar series, a four-part program designed for anyone involved in the installation, maintenance, and repair of fiber optic systems. It begins with fiber inspection and cleaning and then covers the basics of fiber testing. The webinar series then continues with the more advanced optical time-domain reflectometer (OTDR) and fiber local area network (LAN) testing challenges. More information on the series.
IGI is offering a series of webinars on topics of interest to those in the communications industry. You can join them live ir download from the archives. IGI WEBINAR ARCHIVES UP AND RUNNING - VISIT TELECOMBRIEFINGS.COM TO DOWNLOAD!

IGI, a major market research and technology reporting company (the "Active Optical Cables" below) is offering a a free one year subscription to one of our fiber optics newsletters to FOA members. All they have to do is to send IGI an e-mail stating which newsletter they would like to get. See http://www.igigroup.com/nl.html for a listing of IGI Newsletters.

FOA Tech Topics -

A Fiber Optic Tester In Your Pocket? (See the video on )Yes! The camera in your cell phone is sensitive to infrared light - lots more than your eye - and can detect light in an optical fiber or from a transmitter. Chris Hillyer,CFOT/CFOS/I, Master Instructor, Northern California Sound & Communication JATC brought this to our attention.

If you have an old cell phone, try it too. Our experience is that older cell phone cameras have better sensitivity at IR wavelengths than newer phones, so you may want to toss that old phone into the toolbox.

How do you design and manufacture fiber optic systems? Choose and install one to serve your communications needs? Troubleshoot problems? The FOA Fiber Optic Technical Bulletins will provide step-by-step guidelines to help you. All are PDF files you can download, print and use.

Testing Update

Are there really 5 different ways to test optical fiber cabling after installation? Why so many? How do the measurements - and more importantly the measurement results - differ? What are the advanteages and disadvantages of each method?

Illuminated Fishtape: Why Didn't I Think Of That?
Klein Tools, (http://www.kleintools.com/) for professionals since 1857, introduces a new illuminated fish rod tip (Cat. No. 56119). The bright white, omni-directional light illuminates when fishing above ceilings, in attics, through walls, in crawl spaces and under raised floors. The hook or bullet nose attachments (sold separately) fit smoothly into the threaded top and the ends are tapered for easier pushing and pulling.POF Link Transceivers
Enhancements to Versatile Link Plastic Optical Fiber Product Family include integrated digital driver and receiver logic. Avago POF products offer infinite voltage isolation and EMI immunity performance that far exceeds what can be achieved with traditional copper cable standards. POF cable solutions can weigh up to 75% less than copper cables, while providing similar or greater performance with a 50% tighter bend radius at comparable cost.Read More

Senko Connectors for Harsh Environments

SENKO has introduced the IP-SERIES, an effective and low cost connector for harsh environmental applications. It withstands water immersion, dust and temperature ranges of -40 to +70C while providing low insertion loss. Available in LC, SC and MPO versions. Read More.

Magnetic Cable Management HardwareMounting hardware for cable management in equipment or telecom rooms can be difficult - what do you attach things to? But RES has a unique idea - use magnets to hold the hardware on racks or any metal parts. Neat idea, see their products here.

Protecting Pedestals From RodentsPedestals and underground vaults can be damaged by rodents who come up through the base and damage cables. Uraseal "Drain N'Seal" foam deters mice from taking up residence in your pedestals. They have some good videos on using their product.
A Cable Tie That's Fiber FriendlyWe're always warning installers not to tighten cable ties too tightly around fiber optic cable (or UTP copper cable either!) A better choice is the hook and loop fastener ties (Velcro is one trade name), but there is another type, the Mille-Tie. It's an open tie that can be used at any length, then cut off and the remainder used also. Take a look a the video to see how it works.
Mille-Tie Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPVTQGKmcvE

The FOA has created a special FTTx resources section of our website with a FTTx links page with lots of links to news, market reports, technical articles and vendor technical and product information. Here is a great place to start learning more about FTTx.

There are tons of technical application notes and videos on the web, and occasionally we recommend some you should download. The JDSU fiber testing guide is really worthwhile, as are the ADC FTTx book and Westover video on fiber inspection and cleaning, linked below.

JDSU Testing Book

JDSU offers a free download of their Testing Guide from the Lightwave website. This is one great book which explains some basic fiber technology, but the real value is the last half which deals with OTDR testing. Not only does it give the usual info, but it covers important topics like measurement uncertainties and anomolies like ghosts and gainers.

I was in the testing business for 20+ years at Fotec and think this book is one of the best fiber optic testing texts available. It's complete but comprehenisble! I used to believe that premises techs did not need OTDR training, but now OTDR manufacturers are pushing their use in premises networks. Unfortunately, the limitations of OTDRs in premises applications can cause extreme problems for those who are not aware of their limitations. So knowing hows OTDRs work is essential information to every tech.
JH

FOA Jobs WebsiteWe get many questions from CFOTs, students at FOA-Approved schools and others contemplating getting into the fiber optic business regarding jobs in fiber optics - and how to find them - so we’ve created a new web page to share some information we've gathered about jobs in our industry. The information is designed to help you understand what jobs are available in fiber optics, how to find them and apply for them. While the overall economy is pretty bad - you've probably heard that there are 5 times as many people unemployed in the US as there are jobs available, telecom is a bright spot - broadband is a major focus of stimulus spending in the US and countries around the world are building fiber networks as fast as possible. Even wireless companies have to build fiber for their backhaul. Cities are installing fiber linked surveillance cameras and smart traffic lights. Fiber is the link making Smart Grid possible. Companies like Allied Fiber are building large private networks. Telecom is one of the fastest growing businesses worldwide. If you are looking for a job in fiber optics, here is the FOA's guide to jobs.

The FOA has created a group on expressly to help our CFOTs find employment and contracting opportunities. If you are a CFOT and are interested in participating, join us on . If you have job openings, let us post them on .A list of 10 ways to get your resume noticed from Marketplace on NPRJobs Created As Part of Stimulus-Funded ProjectsThe federal government is spending 7.2 billion dollars on the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program. This money is working it's way into the economy and hopefully will provide jobs. You can track recovery dollars and look for job opportunities on this website: www.recovery.gov Go to "opportinities" link then "jobs". You will see a section “find recovery jobs” – enter “fiber optic jobs California” or wherever you are and review what comes up.

Job Openings

Project Manager(10/2012)

Project Manager with Fiber design experience. It would be helpful if this candidate had experience with Bently / Microstation CAD, LOAD Data. Alvin Emmett. Call 770-547-9523.

Fiber Optics Technicians, Afghanistan (9/12)

I am looking for Fiber Optics Technicians with a current security clearance for a role in Afghanistan. Previous experience in this region of the world is preferred. If interested in this overseas opportunity, contact me at the number or email listed below to find out more information about the position.

Product Managers (9/12)

This company is dedicated to offering high quality goods and is ISO 9001:2008 certified. As a Product Manager in the dynamic Fiber Optic Cable product business unit, you will manage all fiber product opportunities - current and new. In addition, you will have full accountability for evaluating product opportunities. You will decide whether or not vendors strategically fit the company’s overall operation, and manage communications.
Experience in marketing, product management or project management
Minimum 5 years experience in fiber optic required
Wireless industry experience preferred

The Product Manager for Enclosures and Towers will be responsible for developing and expanding our current product offering, identify new opportunities to grow buyers and Gross Profit by leveraging current relationships and establishing new ones. You will manage and grow the business unit to meet forecasted gross profit and buyer goals. Working in a team environment, you will partner with our sales team to create and develop marketing programs, optimizing product offerings and developing new opportunities.
5+ years of marketing / product management experience
Experience with wireless infrastructure is preferred, but not required

*If you are interested in these opportunities, please contact Jessie Fanning at 757-345-2494 ext. 30106 or via email at Jessie.fanning@tyges.com

Assistant Project Manager Position (7/12)

Providing Technical Field Services, Training & Consulting FiberNext is now accepting resumes for a qualified Assistant Project Manager. This position is full time salary and includes overnight ground travel obligations throughout the Northeast including New England, NY, NJ and PA, as well as intermittent national travel as needed.

The preferred candidate will possess a thorough working knowledge of fiber optic telecommunications transport systems and have a minimum of three years of direct experience involving the design, installation and maintenance of fiber optic systems and installation and/or a minimum of five years of experience in a closely related field or industry involving communications networking that incorporate fiber optics as a medium. FiberNexxt, 41 Locke Rd., Concord, NH 03301 Phone: 603-226-2400 / Fax: 603-226-2410 www.fibernext.com

Paid Internships With Pakistan Telecom Co.

Pakistan Telecommunications offers paid internships to young people with educational backgrounds in engineering, electronics, IT and business. For more information see http://www.nts.org.pk/NTSWeb/ptcl/ptcl.htm

Fiber Process Research Scientist, Corning (7/12)

Scope of Position:
Scientist responsible for identifying and developing new processes and/or process conditions for improved product attributes or reduced cost of optical fiber manufacturing processes (laydown, consolidation, draw, …). Scope includes identification and development of new fiber making processes and new fiber products. Expectation of developing novel experiments and either developing new analytical techniques or utilizing existing techniques to gain fundamental understanding of underlying principles.

"Your newsletter generated a significant number of applicants and we have filled the position."

FOA Logo Merchandise

New FOA Swag! Shirts, Caps, Stickers, Cups, etc.

The FOA has created a store on Zazzle.com offering lots of new logo merchandise. It has lots of versions of shirts and other merchandise with "FOA," "Fiber U," "Lennie Lightwave" designs and more so you should find something just for you! See FOA on Zazzle.

FOA Certification Top Choice

The FOA CFOT and CFOS programs continue to gain momentum in fiber optics. Over 36,000 CFOTs (December 2011) have been certified by over 250 schools. Since our founding in July, 1995, we have dedicated ourselves to promoting fiber optics and professionalism in fiber optics personnel, focusing on education and certification. We are continuing to add new schools and more CFOTs as users of fiber optics learn that a CFOT is the indication of a professional, well-trained fiber optic technician. Now with FTTH (fiber to the home) finally taking off, demand for CFOTs is rising and schools are responding by expanding programs rapidly.

The FOA now has approved programs in place at 200+ organizations, welcoming new additions like the Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Corning Cable Systems and AFL (and their new acquisition "The Light Brigade" for their installation training programs) and NASA's Goldstone Tracking Station. The complete list of FOA-Approved schools is at http://www.thefoa.org/foa_aprv.htm.

Reading these will help you understand what each FOA certification covers and how to prepare for them.

Your Name, CFOT® - It pays to advertise!

The FOA encourages CFOTs to use the logo on their business cards, letterhead, truck or van, etc. and provides logo files on this site for that purpose. But we are also asked about how to use the CFOT or CFOS certifications. Easy, you can refer to yourself as "Your Name, CFOT" or "Your Name, CFOS/T" for example.

Feel free to use the logo and designations to promote your achievements and professionalism!